When the Thomas fireplace tore by Ventura County in late 2017, it incinerated most of Alice Matzkin’s life’s work. Round 100 of her work that had been saved in a shed outdoors her dwelling had been misplaced, together with a number of household photos and a collection of portraits of older folks that shaped a physique of labor and a ebook, “The Art of Aging.”
It was a devastating loss, however the Ojai artist took it in stride. “It was shocking, but there was nothing I could do,” she tells me from her art-filled dwelling. “I could either go bang my head against the wall and scream and cry and go nuts, or just say: ‘It happened. Thank God the house didn’t burn down.’”
“My other thought was, ‘Well, when we’re dead, the kids won’t have to worry about what to do with all these paintings.’”
Her sanguine — and mischievously macabre — response belies the truth that the hearth, coupled with the lengthy years of the COVID-19 pandemic, brought about an prolonged fallow interval throughout which she fully stopped creating artwork.
It was a placing pause after a protracted, profitable profession as a portrait artist. Her portray of Chelsea Clinton hung within the White Home throughout Invoice Clinton’s tenure, and her depictions of Betty Friedan, who wrote “The Feminine Mystique,” and potter Beatrice Wooden have been featured within the Nationwide Portrait Gallery. (Her work on ageing was even the topic of an Oprah section in 2001.)
Alice Matzkin, who as soon as centered on portraiture — a portrait she painted of Chelsea Clinton as soon as hung within the White Home — now focuses on summary work.
(Colin McCarthy / For The Occasions)
Then at some point, some two years in the past, she heard a voice in her head whereas sweeping the ground, telling her: “Go to the studio and don’t worry about what you’re going to do. Just go do something.”
Lots of her provides had been cindered, however she discovered some black charcoal paper and pastels and “started doing these bizarre drawings, like stream-of-consciousness stuff.” She “just couldn’t stop doing them” and accomplished eight in a interval of some days, earlier than graduating to bigger summary work on greater canvases. She’s now completed 55, a number of of that are on show on the Farmer and the Prepare dinner cafe and market in Ojai.
Matzkin, 85, went by an earlier inventive hiatus whereas she was elevating children from a earlier marriage. Then, at 33, she met her present accomplice, Richard Matzkin — an writer, jazz drummer and sculptor whose personal work focuses on male ageing.
Matzkin says their union rekindled their inventive sparks after a long time of not portray or sculpting. “Being together woke up our art,” she says. “Our love inspired us to go back to work.”
When Alice and Richard Matzkin met, they felt a inventive spark.
(Colin McCarthy / For The Occasions)
“We fell in love the first time we went out, on the Santa Monica Freeway,” Matzkin says. “I was driving my little car and he took my hand and said, ‘You’re so beautiful.’ … I’m sitting there looking at this guy and I’m like, ‘This guy is so cute.’” Quickly they had been making out in a car parking zone. (“I don’t make out in parking lots; this was an exception.”)
Since then, the couple have lived in a single-story Ojai dwelling for 33 years, filling it with reminiscences and mementos, together with a number of Buddha statues from their travels. A shelf of their ethereal studio discreetly catalogs her profession highlights: pale images with Hillary Clinton and Wooden; a replica of the “Who’s Who in American Art” that options Matzkin; a gaggle household photograph on the Smithsonian.
Alice Matzkin paints in her new summary model, surrounded by a few of her earlier portrait work.
(Colin McCarthy / For The Occasions)
Sculptures by Richard Matzkin, 82, take up one nook, however the majority of the studio partitions are reserved for her artworks. Portraits of older members of the family dominate, together with a number of deathbed scenes: Matzkin and her mom, and a close-up of Richard Matzkin’s Aunt Kitty with eyes closed and mouth open.
Ageing has been a cornerstone of Matzkin’s work for many years. “I looked in the mirror at 58, and I started noticing that these wrinkles are really starting to show up,” she recollects. “I looked outside and saw that everything was dying: Trees are dying, flowers are dying … everything dies, except maybe plastic. Everything’s got a cycle, including me. And then I went, ‘Wait, this is crazy to think that way … afraid that I’m going to drop dead … Might as well enjoy life.’”
Alice Matzkin holds the ebook she wrote with husband Richard Matzkin that explores ageing by their paintings.
(Colin McCarthy / For The Occasions)
She started interviewing ladies over 70, asking what makes life worthwhile, and portray their portraits. Many posed bare, proving that “every age has its beauty.” Trying again a long time later, she says she’s grateful for with the ability to work by her fears along with her artwork.
“I’m not afraid to die,” she insists. “I’m just so grateful for my life. I look at myself and every wart and these arms that look like lizard arms … All I did was go to bed at night and wake up and there was another wrinkle on that face. What can you do? It’s part of the beauty and accepting it is much easier.”
Wooden was 105 and nonetheless throwing pots on her wheel when she was portrayed for the mission, reminding Matzkin that “the well of creativity never runs dry.” It’s been overflowing in her studio recently, and the brilliant, summary creations right here testify to her new discovered inventive power — a drive that sees her working within the studio from daybreak to nightfall, apparently, and infrequently forgetting to eat. “I’m sitting here painting away like a maniac,” she admits.
If she begins to see a picture seem, she flips the canvas earlier than persevering with “and it’s a whole new thing.” The works, which she describes as weird and wild and “totally not boring,” could be rotated and displayed 4 alternative ways.
As seen within the Matzkins’ studio, from left: Richard Matzkin’s sculptures, his portrait painted by his spouse and extra of her artwork. (Colin McCarthy / For The Occasions)
“If you really stare at them, you’ll find all kinds of imagery,” she says. “I see things in them that I didn’t see when I was painting.” Bursting forth, for me at the least, are birds of paradise, galaxies, floating stairways, even an octopus.
Now the city’s artsy neighborhood — and guests — can see them up shut. Was it nerve-racking to stage a brand new exhibition? “At first I was thinking, ‘Golly, this is going to be a challenge,’” she replies. “Then I realized it was just my ego speaking, and it had nothing to do with the actual art, you know, worrying about what somebody thinks. It doesn’t really matter because the truth is, you can’t please everybody.”
“It’s so precious, to put good vibes out in the world,” she provides. “My paintings feel like good vibes. Somebody else might run out screaming if they see it, but you know, what can you do? Our intention in life is to bring love into the world.”
Portray in Tongues: Emanations From a Quiet Thoughts
The place: Farmer and the Prepare dinner, 339 W. El Roblar Drive in Ojai
When: By means of Oct. 6
